Delegation of SEMI Members Meet with DOE on Solid State Lighting Policy

Delegation
of SEMI Members Meet with DOE on Solid State Lighting Policy

Group
Demonstrates that Solid State Lighting Delivers the Best ROI on Taxpayer
Investment in Replacing Fossil Fuels

A
delegation of SEMI members and other stakeholders in LED manufacturing met with
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary of Energy David
Danielson and his senior staff in August to advocate for increased support for
R&D and manufacturing in solid state lighting (SSL). The group based their
arguments on the significantly higher return-on-investment (ROI) from
government funding demonstrated by LED-based solid state lighting over
renewable energy sources and other energy investments. Also emphasized was the strong bipartisan and
bicameral support from both the U.S. House and Senate for solid state lighting,
a fact under-appreciated in this era of austerity and reduced funding
expectations.

Support
for an appropriately–funded and effective U.S. LED manufacturing policy has
much of its origins with the FALCON Lighting Consortium, a group of solid state
lighting industry proponents led by Philips Lumileds, and SEMI members Applied
Materials, Veeco, KLA-Tencor, Ultratech, and others. SEMI and FALCON have long advocated increased
DOE support for developing solid state lighting in the U.S., particularly in
the area of manufacturing, but also supportive of other solid state lighting
related efforts. In addition to U.S.–based
manufacturing, SEMI members in the U.S. are among the world leaders in
supplying equipment and materials for LED manufacturing around the world.

U.S.
LED manufacturing received over $23 million in grants in areas such as
metrology, lithography, and deposition R&D as part of the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act in 2009. Since that time, funding has been reduced, but considerable
bipartisan and bicameral support on Capitol Hill have successfully restored and
increased funding levels above the requests put forward by the DOE to the
Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittees.

During
the meeting, the group demonstrated that energy conservation afforded by solid
state lighting will have greater impact in U.S. energy use than the renewable
energy generation technologies being supported by current government
investments. Based upon estimates by the independent energy information administration, DOE and others, solid
state lighting can deliver 4.0-6.0 quads of annual energy savings for a 10-20
times higher ROI than other energy investment alternatives. A summary of the solid state lighting ROI argument
is provided below:

SSL Delivers the Best
Return on Taxpayer Investment in Replacing Fossil Fuels

During
the meeting, the group urged greater balance for energy funding in the FY2013
and future budgets. Dr. Richard Solarz, senior
director of Technology at KLA-Tencor, and Randy Moorhead, VP for government
relations at Philips Electronics, co-leaders of the group advocating for
greater DOE support for solid state lighting stated, “According to the Energy
Information Administration, on a dollar-per-unit of-production basis, the level
of subsidies received by the wind and solar industries were almost 100 times
greater than those for conventional energy. We believe that it is generally
understood that conventional energy conservation, specifically lighting,
efforts are under supported.”

This
is the first time in the past several years that an Assistant Secretary has
agreed to meet with solid state lighting industry proponents to discuss this
important issue. SEMI believes that the
meeting will be a singular opportunity to secure support for Solid State
Lighting beyond its funding levels of the past four years, this in spite of the
clear anticipation of highly constrained national budgets in the coming
years. Education efforts on the value
and return of solid state lighting has consistently been conducted among key
Committee members and staff in the U.S. House and Senate and support for
increased DOE funding in this area have been voiced by both Democratic and
Republican legislators. Despite the
austerity mood in Washington, SEMI is confident that increased budget requests
for LED-based lighting technologies will receive considerable bicameral and
bipartisan support in the legislative branch during upcoming legislative
sessions.